New Podcast - This Time, as a Guest on Unified Comms Influencers

It’s always easier being a guest on someone else’s podcast than hosting your own, and Dominic Kent and I both know what the latter entails. Like me, Dominic wears a few hats, and his podcast, Unified Comms Influencers is one of them.

I was his guest last week for Episode 21. He’s doing a great job tracking the UC space, and has been tapping the analyst community, including colleagues Irwin Lazar and Blair Pleasant, for recent podcasts. There’s lots of good content to explore in his archive, so I urge you to check that out.

First, of course, you should give our segment a listen, which was posted yesterday, here on his site. We talked about current trends in UC, and given my background, we got to go back to beginning, where I provided the back story around VoIP’s early days, and how we got here from there. Dominic writes up a summary as a companion piece to each podcast, so you can read more about what we talked about as a preview for our conversation. Hope you enjoy it, and don’t forget to buy Dominic a cup of coffee if you want to show your support.

My Next Webinar - Death of the PBX

October is zooming along, and this will be my third webinar for the month, so things have been pretty busy lately.

This time around, it’s another Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com webinar, with a topic that anyone in the telephony space should be interested in. For digital natives, the PBX has about as much utility as a fax machine or a home phone line, so Captain Obvious isn’t needed here. For everyone else, however, the PBX is still a mainstay, and the installed base - for better or worse - is still pretty large.

While the vendors aren’t making ‘em any more, the IP phone business is still going strong, so the “death” thing is a bit overstated. That’s the setup for my webinar, and if you want in, here’s the registration page. We’re doing this next Tuesday - Oct. 30 - at 2pm, and hope you can join us.

Voice - New and Improved, Thanks to AI - and Future of Work Expo Shout-Out, Part 2

Well, this worked out well. I've been writing a column for TMCnet - Rethinking Communications - for a few years, but after shifting recently to a quarterly publishing cycle, there have been longer gaps for my articles.

My latest article was just published the other day, and as the title suggests - Voice - New and Improved, Thanks to AI - the topic fits quite well with the Future of Work Expo coming up next January. To connect the dots, my earlier post today talks about the conference, and after reading that, the connection with this article should be clear.

This time around, the article is running in TMCnet's publication Unifed Communications, and that seems like a good fit to me. I hope you enjoy it, and even better if it gets you closer to deciding to join us at Future of Work Expo.

Blockchain Futurist Conference, Toronto - Pix, Thoughts and Larry King

Kinda thought that last part would get your attention. What in the world does Larry King have to do with blockchain?

No matter what your answer, it's correct. Yes, he really was there, and in a bizarre way, his voice-of-authority presence kinda provided a veneer of validation to all the goings-on. I have no doubt that's part of why he actually does represent Gear Blockchain as an Advisor; although in yet another bizarre angle to the blockchain/crypto tsunami, they share a common passion to combat climate change. I can explain later.

Lots to unpack there, and I'm saving that for a longer post, so stay tuned. In short, yesterday I attended Day 1 of of the Blockchain Futurist Conference - basic details here - partly to invest a day of my time to immerse myself in the space, but also to see where there might be applications in the communications and/or customer care spaces. Am still a bit fuzzy on the latter, but give me a day or two, and things will become clearer.

Overall, there was lots of energy in the crowd, and while the show producers fell short in many areas, they sure packed the place with big names, and the venue had the right mix of exciting new technology and a Gen Y/Z party vibe. I'm on the wrong side of the age curve for what MIllennials can relate to, but I still find it hard to take speakers seriously when dressed in sneakers, skinnny jeans, hipster beards and black t-shirts. Ya gotta get past that though, as there were some very smart people who know what's happening, and really, it's their future, and I'm just living in it.

Sure, there's lots of hype, and it's hard to say how many of these companies are going to make it, but the potential sure is fascinating - and yes, it is happening. For those of us who went through VoIP's growing pains, it's certainly 2004 redux, and the whole trajectory of this space feels eerily familiar. I'll have more to say about that in my upcoming post, so for now, I'll share a few photos. I'm not giving you much here, but your thoughts, questions or first impressions are most welcome!

Great view of our skyline from the back patio - CN Tower and all - cool, huh?

Future of Blockchain panel - including Jeff Pulver - not surprisingly, I think his comments resonated with the audience by far better than anyone else I saw speaking.

Venue sure had some interesting spaces for the speakers - not always easy to hear them, and the mikes cut out from time to time, but they made good use of the space.

Old school journalism never gets old. Larry King's opening comment - "I'm the oldest guy here in the room". Yup, but nobody  minded, and in the end, he asked THE right question that made all of this real for the audience - watch for that in my next post!

Newsletter Time - August Edition

It's been fairly quiet lately on the blog front, as well as my broader activities, and I think summer just might have something to do with that. Read what you may into that, and while the content is light, my August newsletter is now out.

The main highlight - especially if you're new to the newsletter - is a set of links to the podcasts I've produced so far, and I hope you find those of interest. There's certainly more to come in future newsletters, along with other features I'm planning to add.

If you're not a subscriber, it just takes a moment. There are signup forms on my website, and if you can't be bothered to look, here's a direct link.

Feedback is always welcome, especially for new things you'd like to see covered in our podcasts, and I would consider guest posts if there's a good fit. Summer is short, and I've never been busier, so come September, I should have more to report in the newsletter. Until then, I hope you enjoy the current edition.

Is Ribbon Communications the New BroadSoft?

Short question - and long answer. That thought has been with me since their Perspectives18 event earlier this month, and I finally got a chance to explore it in my latest contribution to BCStrategies. Earlier, I posted some quick takeaways and photos here, but for a longer analysis about Ribbon Communications, BCStrategies was the right place to land.

My analysis has now been posted to our portal, and I hope you like it. After you're done, feel free to comment and share, and then spend more time checking out all the other content on the site - our views are diverse and the insights are very good!

Next Stop - Los Angeles and Ribbon Communications

Got industry events happening during the next two weeks, so it's travel time again. On Sunday, I'm flying to LA for Perspectives18, the annual confernce for Ribbon Communications. I've been to a few of these, but this marks the first Perspectives event under the Ribbon name, since the merger between Genband and Sonus happened shortly after last year's event.

I've always struggled a bit with the rationale for this pairing, and hearing more about how it's working out will be a primary focus for next week. Also, the messaging last year was heavy on Kandy, their CPaaS platform, and am keen to hear the progress report nearly a year later.

More details are here in the Event Calendar section of my website, and to follow the updates, my twitter handle is @arnoldjon, and for Ribbon's feed, it's #RBBNP18.

My May Newsletter is Out, Including a New Podcast - Subscribe Here

I'm going to do a standard shout-out here each time my newsletter is published. You need to subscribe to get it, and all you need to do is provide your email address. Not all of you follow my blog, or understand the range of services I provide, and the newsletter addresses both by providing updates on my practice, broad insights about the collaboration space, and current examples of what I'm doing with my clients.

My newsletter is very much a work in progress, and this month marks the inclusion of a podcast as a regular feature. For this segment, I'm in conversation with colleague Chris Fine, talking about the MoNage conference we spoke at last month, and how technology is reshaping the way we work.

The content in my newsletter is exclusive for subscribers, so if any or all of this is of interest, you need to subscribe. Signup forms  can easily be found on my website - including this standalone page - and hopefully that will be your next stop. I should add that many of you follow me via RSS, but we'll both be better served by subscribing as well, and if you do, thanks!

Shout-Out for my April Newsletter - Subscribe Here

My newsletter - Communications and Collaboration Review - is starting to become a thing now, and the April edition has just been sent to subscribers. To get it, you need to sign up, so with every new edition, I need to support it with a blog post so people will know it's out there. So, as I did for last month's newsletter, here's the story...

Visitors to my website will know that I produce a newsletter, available on a sign-up basis. I'm not asking much - just your interest to learn more about what I do, and your email address - and over time, am hoping that will drive more engagement with some of you.

Many followers sign up for alerts for my new blog posts via RSS, but I don't know who you are. If that's all you want, great, but to get my newsletter, you need to sign up. For now, the newsletter provides exclusive content, and aside from amplifying my recent thought leadership and industry activities, I'll increasingly be creating original content, along with citings from my 10+ year archive of blogs posts and photos.

That's my soft pitch to encourage you to sign up, and if you do that soon, I'll make sure you get the April edition. Sign-up forms can be found here, or on any page of my website. Otherwise, I encourage your feedback and ideas for future topics.

Also, for the right circumstances, I'm happy to consider forms of sponsorship and possibly guest posts. My newsletter is really your newsletter, so all input is welcome - thanks.

March Writing Roundup

March was light on the writing front, but I kept busy otherwise, doing a webinar, a couple of podcasts, attending/speaking at Enterprise Connect, and being a source for several stories that ran in the media, especially around Enterprise Connect.

Looking ahead, I'm also in prep mode for a speaking spot at the upcoming MoNage conference, and soon after that, I'll be playing music again with the SIPtones at the Genesys conference in Nashville. Updates coming on those soon.

On the writing front, below is a summary of what kept me busy last month. Aside from this, I also produce a newsletter for my subscribers. It's still quite new and is taking shape one month at a time, and the April edition should be out in the next few days. If you'd like to get that, please sign up here, and I'll make sure to get you on the subscriber list right away.

Media Citings Summary Following Enterprise Connect, my blog, March 27

Enterprise Connect 2018 - First Impressions, Literally, BCStrategies, March 19

What Does Messaging Have That Voice Doesn't?, Toolbox.com, March 15

Why the "New Voice" is Happening Now, Toolbox.com, March 12

Talking Speech Tech for the Enterprise - podcast, No Jitter On Air, March 8 (scroll down the list - registration required, but I can help with that)

3 Things IT Needs to Understand About the Digital Workplace, Toolbox.com, March 7

Enterprise Connect Preview #2 - New Podcast: Interviewed by No Jitter

I can't tie up loose ends fast enough ahead of next week's Enterprise Connect in Orlando. Got back-to-back podcasts to share here that will help set the stage. Yesterday, I posted about our BCStrategies podcast, where we each did a brief preview of our talks and what to expect at the conference.

Today, I'll get more specific, with another podcast - this time, about my speech tutorial, which starts right at the beginning - 8am Monday. The interview was conducted by No Jitter's Beth Schultz, and we touched on the key themes I'll be addressing, along with why speech tech is getting really interesting now in the enterprise.

The podcast was just posted, and is titled "Talking Speech Tech for the Enterprise", and can be accessed here, on No Jitter's site, under the Podcasts tab. Small hurdle, though - you need to be registered with UBM to get it there. Just takes a moment to sign up, and then you're in. The benefit is you can then peruse all the other podcasts, and there's lots to choose from.

While you're on the No Jitter site, feel free to review this article I recently wrote about my session, and if you're planning to attend, here are the details.

Finally, if you just have to hear the No Jitter podcast NOW, and can't be bothered to register, here's a direct link. I also shared that link earlier on both twitter and Linkedin - and on that note, to follow the conference on social, the hash is #EC18, and I'm @arnoldjon.

Preview for Enterprise Connect - Our BCStrategies Podcast

The week is flying by, and the biggest conference in our space is next week, so time is short. I've already done shout-outs about my session there - and more to come - but we're going bigger picture here. Since many of us at BCStrategies (nee UCStrategies) are speaking at Enterprise Connect, we put this podcast together so you can hear all about that in one place. 

Our fearless leader, Jim Burton, did a great job moderating, and he's pulled it all together nicely, with both our podcast, and a summary table for all our speaking spots at the show. It's a lot to follow, posted now on our portal.

Sidebar - I rarely post two images, but it fits this time. Below is our BCStrategies logo, and a shout-out for my speaking spot. Also, fyi, if you register before March 9 with this link, you'll get $500 off your registration.

February Writing Roundup

Time for another monthly writing update. My mix of work has shifted a bit, so my volume of writing is less, but am plenty busy in other areas. Depending on what you did or didn't read from me in February, here are the highlights to share:

How Can Huddle Room Technology Maximize Collaboration Success?, TechTarget, Feb. 27

AI in the Workplace - Voice is All you Need, Toolbox.com, Feb. 23

EC Tutorial - 3 Big Ideas for Speech Tech, No Jitter, Feb. 20

Thoughts on ITExpo - Where the Phones Are, UCStrategies, Feb. 20

The Evolution of Unified Communications Technologies, TechTarget, Feb. 14

My Latest Cisco White Paper - AI in the Contact Center, my blog, Feb. 12

BroadSoft Survey Analysis #3 - Extending the UC Value Proposition, Toolbox.com, Feb. 8

How AI can Make Voice Collaboration Better, Toolbox.com, Feb. 6

Consolidating Overlapping Tools for Enterprise Collaboration, Network Evolution Magazine - TechTarget, Feb. 1

The Evolution of UC Technologies - My Latest on TechTarget

Am way behind sharing my recent published posts here on the blog. ITExpo was very good last week, and I'll have a post on that any day now. Looking ahead, I've got a post coming about next month's Enterprise Connect, so watch for that as well.

For now, I'm sharing a link to this writeup I did for TechTarget. It ran on their site middle of last week, and has been getting a lot of social media buzz. In case you missed it, here's the link, along with this really nice infographic they put together to support it.

January Writing Roundup

I was so busy through all of January, am just realizing now that I didn't do a writing roundup for December. That's getting a bit long at this point, but I'll include just a couple of items from December in this writeup. Many of my posts aren't that time sensitive, so the analysis often has a longer shelf life than the news-based posts that drive most of social media. That's not what I do, and to show the difference, here are some writing highlights from January and a bit beyond.

New Research from BroadSoft - Cloud UC is Growing, Toolbox.com, Jan. 30

Can you Collaborate without Voice?, Toolbox.com, Jan. 22

How to Navigate the Enterprise Collaboration Market, TechTarget, Jan. 16

What to Look for in a Hosted UC Partner - Who are they Selling to?, Toolbox.com, Jan. 15

2018 Outlook - The Shape of Collaboration, No Jitter, Jan. 9

Collaboration in 2018 - AI is Coming, Toolbox.com, Jan. 10

Hackonomy - How BroadSoft Helps Service Providers Succeed with the Cloud, my blog, Jan. 3

CCaaS - Another Slice of the Collaboration Spectrum, Call Center Scheduling Magzine, and  Internet Telephony Magazine, Q4 2017, Dec. 15

Shakeups and Shakeouts in Collaboration - Setting the Stage for 2018, UCStrategies, Dec. 13

2018 Business Comms Forecast - our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Eventually, I'll transition fully from UCStrategies to BCStrategies, and hopefully this doesn't cause confusion. Two names, two websites, but the content is the same, and so are the people. Am hoping it will just be BCStrategies at some point in 2018, and I'm getting on the bandwagon now.

I stand corrected on my earlier blog post, saying that our podcast about Net Neutrality was the last one for 2017. Forgot about that one, and this one is our lookout for what 2018 holds for the always expanding/ever-confusing world of communications/collaboration/customer care.

Whatever you choose to call it, this podcast is a good roundup of analysts and consultants - myself included - who are all close to the trends shaping this space. I think you'll find it time well-spent, and here's the link to hear what we had to say. Feel free to add your take, and I'll be back to blogging early next week. Happy New Year!

New UCStrategies Podcast - 2017 Year in Review

It's that time of year again, and there sure is lots to talk about for what transpired in 2017 in the collaboration space. This universe keeps expanding, but also morphing in directions that are hard for everyone to understand.

If you're nodding in agreement, then you'll find our collective reflections time well spent. Here's the link to listen, and there's more coming soon from me and others at UCStrategies in written form.

November Writing Roundup

Another busy month, and while my public writing output was on the light side, other things are helping keep my plate full. Here's a digest of my November posts that may still be of interest if you didn't see them before.

Will AI Become Like Organic Food?, UCStrategies, Nov. 30

Can AI Really Improve Collaboration?, Toolbox.com, Nov. 29

How do you Measure Collaboration ROI?, TechTarget, Nov. 29

Learning from Oreos and Hackonomy to Improve Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Nov. 17

Three Reasons to Focus on Outcomes with Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Nov. 14

Using Hackonomy to Create Relevance for Customers, No Jitter, Nov. 7

3 Things Businesses Need to Know About Amazon Connect, Toolbox.com, Nov. 2

October Writing Roundup

Was a busy month, with more travel than usual, and attending/speaking at four events. Also made some good behind-the-scenes progress on my website, and had a good jump in new followers for my blog.

I've been talking about providing regular - and exclusive - updates for my subscribers for some time, and it's looking good to finally get that going this month, so please bear with me. All of this has cut into my writing a bit, but here's what was keeping me busy on that front during October.

Understanding Cisco's Acquisition of BroadSoft - I Think Taher Behbehani Knows Why, UCStrategies, Oct. 27

How do Huddle Rooms Fit in Video Conferencing Strategies?, TechTarget, Oct. 25

Why is Walmart Using Facebook for Collaboration? Should You?, Toolbox.com, Oct. 20

Why Messaging is the new Driver for Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Oct. 16

Chatbots - 10 Risks you need to Consider, Toolbox.com, Oct. 12

6 Reasons to Use Chatbots in your Business, Toolbox.com, Oct. 4

Market Analysis - How Mobility and Messaging are Transforming CX, JAA Blog, Oct. 3

Next Stop - BroadSoft in Phoenix, then MoNage in Boston

Busy week ahead, with back-to-back conferences. On Monday, and for a bit of Tuesday, I'll be at BroadSoft Connections in Phoenix. I've been to several of their conferences in the past, but not recently, and am really looking forward to getting back. BroadSoft has really hit critical mass now, and I'm certain 2018 will be the year they decide whether to keep building on their momentum, or take an exit. Other players are in the same boat, and am sure the playing field will be smaller by this time next year.

I'll be dashing from Connections on Tuesday to Boston for Jeff Pulver's next MoNage event, where I'll be speaking along with Chris Fine on Wednesday morning. Just finishing up our presentation now.

As time allows, I'll be tweeting throughout the week, and for more details, please check the Events Calendar section of my website.